


making history

by Faye_Reynolds



Series: tumblr au prompts [8]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, M/M, king!brad, medieval!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 05:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13381461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faye_Reynolds/pseuds/Faye_Reynolds
Summary: frommy tumblr post





	making history

**Author's Note:**

> from [my tumblr post](http://thecompanyofheroes.co.vu/post/163900430213/bradray-medievalau-being-the-right-hand-to)

being the right hand to the king wasn’t always the easiest job, but seeing as how he could die at any time on any given day, ray tried to make the most of it. most of his day was spent in the main room or outside on the training field and to be honest, he thought that the court was putting more pressure on his position than necessary. there had been no attempted murders, poisonings, uproars, or riots and though he’s been by brad’s side since they were kids, he’s only been brad’s right-hand for nearly a year. that all changes when they have to go the war. the neighboring kingdom refuses to work together to protect and provide for one another and brad has no choice, but to declare war. sometimes war was the answer. and it isn’t until they’re in their convoy, away from the castle, that people try to kill brad. and ray can’t keep up. brad’s good at protecting himself and ray is even better, being the greatest archer of the century, but with so many attack coming at them at every turn, it’s nearly impossible to keep up. and as if war and attempted regicide weren’t enough to keep ray on edge, he somehow has to manage the discovery of just how much he loves his king. but after a battle that has them exhausted and brad wrapped in too many bandages for ray to count, he risks his entire life in more ways than one to protect brad once again, from others as well as himself. and if death comes on swift wings, ray prays that he’s the only one that’s carried away.

* * *

 

brad can recall the very moment he fell in love with ray. 

they’d been travelling around the kingdom’s villages for a few weeks, a way to keep morale up and to make sure that his people were being treated fairly and receiving everything they needed, and ray was talking up a storm as usual.

trombley had interrupted at some point, though brad was trying to tune them out.

“hey pers, didn’t your mom put your name up on the blacksmith’s wall of knights?

ray smiles and responded somewhat proudly, “yes. my grandmother did when i came here for the king.”

brad’s ears perked up at the mention of his title. brad didn’t hate when ray called him king, but he preferred his own name out of ray’s mouth.

he interrupted, “if my mother ever distributed my my name to anyone without written authorization, i would disown her.

ray responded mischievously, “technically speaking, brad, but didn’t your parents already disown you when they gave you the keys to the kingdom?

they pulled up to the next village and brad notice two peasant girls looking to the nearby farmer’s scraps for food.

he started talking as he looks for the bundles of apples they’d picked earlier in the day.

“i was one of those unfortunate teenagers trusted by highborn royalty and nurtured in an environment of learning, art and a socio-religious culture steeped in more than 200 years of tradition. not everyone is lucky enough to have been raised in a wine truss village by a bow-legged female whose sole qualification for motherhood is a womb that happened to catch a seed of a passing drunkard.”

he dismounted from his horse quickly and was walking away when he heard ray shout.

“at least my mom took me to jousting tournaments!”

and brad had never smiled so wide. 

and later that night when ray started making up stories about the stars while trombley and hasser snored away, brad just listened, not caring if it was bullshit or not, but needing ray to keep talking, as if his world would somehow stop without ray.

and brad knew he was in love.

and he knew that in the end, it would be the death of him.

* * *

there’s something about kings that many people overlook. they have a rather startling firm grasp on their own mortality. 

death could come for them at any time, by any person’s hand.

told the cook their venison was too salty? poisoned.

ask the servant for new sheets in the wrong tone? fatal snake in the bed.

treated the farmer’s daughter or son the wrong way? stabbed while walking through town. 

so from the beginning brad knew his death would come eventually, so he chose to do as much as he could for himself and his people and his kingdom as he could.

it wasn’t until he fell in love with ray, that he feared his own mortality and he feared for ray’s more.

that’s why he had asked ray to be his right hand, so he could keep the man as close to him as possible and protected as much as he could. not that ray needed protecting, he was a fierce and fatal warrior on his own, but brad would be damned if he wouldn’t do all that he could to protect his best friend. 

and when push comes to shove, brad knows he can rely on ray as much as ray relies on him. 

and one night, after a long and arduous battle they eventually win brad has wounds all over his body and ray is looking at him like he’s never seen him before. and brad  _knows_  that look. he looked at ray like that when his right hand had managed to kill over twenty soldier in a span of three minutes and save their entire company’s lives. it was a look of passion and want and fear and awe and  _love._

and as if that weren’t enough to completely floor brad, the sight of ray running out of his tent breaks him.

* * *

ray couldn’t do it anymore. he couldn’t continue to watch brad nearly die every day.  _he_  was supposed to protect him from anything that wished him harm. and he apparently was doing a shit job. it didn’t help that brad walked into every battle with a headstrong determination to kill as many people as possible, but still. ray was supposed to be there when shit hit the fan and fall, quite literally, on the sword for brad. and for a long time, he’s been happy to do so. but tonight was too close a call. he was almost certain they were going to lose brad, doc bryan had said as much to him, and the hollow, frozen feeling in ray’s chest had been to difficult to bear. 

and that’s why he was running across their camp, rain striking across his face like sharp slices of a knife. 

staring at brad, he was finding it difficult to breathe and he couldn’t take it anymore. he had to get out and figure out a way to tell brad that he couldn’t do it anymore.

he couldn’t stay by and watch the man he loved nearly die everyday over the fact that the kingdom nearby wouldn’t share their potatoes. it was frivolous and pointless. and if it cause brad’s death, ray would take it upon himself to burn the kingdom to the ground, no matter who suffered.

and the anger has him so distracted that he doesn’t notice when brad stops in front of him, out of breath and a couple stitches pushing their boundaries against his heaving chest.

ray takes a deep breath before looking up at brad and his throat tightens when he sees the look on his king’s face.

it the same look ray knows he’s had since they were thirteen and started sparring against one another.

and when they were sixteen and race through the woods on horseback. 

and when brad turned eighteen and was crowned king.

and when they were twenty and brad named ray his right-hand.

and it was the same look he has on his face now.

and then brad resolutely destroys him.

“i love you.”

it’s simple, effective, and entirely brad to just declare something as earth shattering as that to ray, in the rain, after he’d just had a crisis about how he was going to tell brad he needed to leave.

and ray knew he couldn’t, even before the declaration, would never be able to leave brad willingly. it would’ve killed him faster than anyone or anything else could.

and brad was starting to look like he’d made a huge mistake and for the first time, ray saw genuine apprehension in brad’s bright blue eyes.

he smiled, “i don’t think there’s been two kings in our nation before, bradley.”

brad smirked, tension slowly easing out.

“you’ve always been a queen in my eyes, ray.”

ray laughed, “what about that heir your council keeps badgering you about?”

ray was cursing himself for not telling brad what he’s been holding in all these years and for not straight up kissing his king, but he needed to know that brad had thought about this as much as he did. that he knew what was at stake and that if ray couldn’t have all of brad, he didn’t know what he would do.

“i don’t give a fuck. i’ll choose an heir. i’ll even take in walt or trombley as my ward if i have to. as long as i have you, everyone else can fuck off.”

ray threw himself into brad’s arms and lips as he finished his second declaration.

it was a welcomed heat against their wet, cold skin and ray had felt like every scrape, stitch, and scar that littered their bodies. every. single. one. had been worth it, if it meant he got to experience this kiss.

it was everything.

_brad_  was everything. 

had been since the moment he and ray had met.

ray pulled away slowly and looked at brad and he couldn’t help but laugh at their situation.

brad was relatively lowkey. he didn’t stir the pot and he tried his hardest to make sure all in his kingdom were happy and treated fairly. 

and now? he wanted to completely destroy centuries worth of tradition and culture and hierarchy for ray. 

it was a hell out a commitment.

“i love you, my king.”

brad groaned and ray was certain that it was half arousal and half annoyance.

“shut the fuck up ray.”

okay, maybe it was full annoyance.

“i love you too.”

ray shrugged as the two of them limped back towards their tent.

confident in the knowledge that they would have one another until their dying breaths. 


End file.
